A prior art cloth laying machine is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,980 issued Dec. 11, 1979. This machine is mounted on a plurality of cutting tables which are joined to each other in side-by-side relationship. The cutting tables may be of varying depths and therefore it is customary to guide the cloth laying machine from the front edge of the tables only. To this end, the tables are provided with a standard T-shaped guide track along the front edge which is engaged by a grooved wheel carried by the cloth laying machine. In operation, the cloth laying machine will move across the tables and then back again and so on spreading one layer of cloth on top of another until the desired number of layers of cloth have been spread on the cutting tables. This form of machine and its associated guide means have performed in a generally satisfactory manner in the past particularly when spreading flat cloth where the edges of the cloth are to be trimmed. However, the cloth laying machine when guided by a groove wheel has been known to leave the T-shaped guide track and, as the machine is powered by an overhead trolly, it has continued to lay cloth without proper guidance. Where the machine is operating without proper supervision, it is apparent that the machine could continue to operate until it leaves the tables. This obviously is not desirable.
In addition, when spreading tubular knit materials where the edges of the material actually become part of the garment, it is essential that the superimposed layers be in correct alignment with each other at all times. When utilizing the prior T-shaped guide tracks it has frequently been difficult to obtain and maintain proper end-to-end alignment of the various sections of the T-shaped guide tracks. This will cause bending of the adjacent ends of the guide tracks, which will make it difficult to maintain the proper alignment of the superimposed layers with each other. In addition, since the T-shaped guide track is of generally lightweight material, it has been found that as the machine brakes, frequently a twisting motion is applied to the track which also may cause the tracks to become bent preventing the maintenance of the proper alignment of the superimposed layers with respect to each other.